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Oral history interview with Hama Yamaki

 Digital Record
Identifier: SR 992

Summary

Digitized audio recording of interview with Hama Yamaki (1891-1988), conducted in multiple sessions from December 27, 1985, to January 27, 1986, with abridged English transcript (40 pages). Yamaki discusses her her early life on a silkworm farm in Fukushima, Japan; talks about her marriage to Eitaro Yamaki in 1913; and describes immigrating to the United States the next year. She talks about adjusting to life in Portland, Oregon, and shares the reasons she and Eitaro Yamaki moved to the Hood River Valley. She discusses their life in Oak Grove and later Pine Grove, and talks about raising their four children. She shares her experiences after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, and discusses making preparations before the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans by the U.S. government during World War II. She describes living conditions at the Pinedale Assembly Center in Fresno, California, and the Tule Lake incarceration camp, and talks about leaving the camp in 1943 to work on a farm in Nampa, Idaho. She reflects on her experiences as a first-generation Japanese American woman.

Repository Details

Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository

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5033065204
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